Concealed carry laws in general have had little to no effect on crime rates nationwide. Some criminals do get stopped in their tracks by law-abiding gun owners, but a few more firearm-related accidents have happened.

As such, I support the right for upstanding citizens who undergo training and a background check to carry a concealed weapon. It’s a civil liberty that doesn’t hurt people on the whole.

Worst idea ever. The fear most logical people would have about allowing this to go through is not that a trained and background checked person might misuse his/her gun but rather that the more guns in our society, the better chance a criminal has of getting one in his/her hands through theft or some other means. Claiming that criminals target gun-free areas is a clear scare tactic on the part of crazed gun toting second amendment proselytizers who will try anything to get people to accept their ulteriorly motivated agenda. Stop trying to scare people into agreeing with you.

“A shoot-out is better than a massacre!” - David M. Bennett

a drunk campus carrying concealed weapons… bartime would be a lot more fun with everyone armed.. i’m sure if zimmerman would have been armed this never would have happened.. if you want to carry guns move to texas

Conceal Carry reminds me of the time in the 1950’s when two south Texas farmers got into a dispute over some land on a hot day and one of the farmers reached in his back ppocket and the other farmer shot him dead only to find out that he was reaching for a handkerchief—no gun. So much for sanity. ed

Good plan! Then we can return to the colonial days and defend ourselves from the British and settle disputes with a duel!! May the best man win, gentlemen.

Concealed carry does save lives. 48 states have concealed carry laws. We trust 18 year olds to vote. We trust 18 year olds with firearms to defend this country. Yet we can’t trust a college student that has had training and a background check to carry a concealed firearm for personal protection?

When seconds count, Police are only minutes away! Wake up America!

This is the dumbest idea ever. You can’t prevent shootings by giving more people guns, you prevent shootings by taking away guns. I don’t want to go to class and sit next to someone with a gun, no matter how many background checks you do and how much training someone undergoes, people can snap at any time and for any reason. we should have metal detectors in class, not guns.

In response to “if you want to carry guns, move to Texas”…If YOU feel safer if civilians can’t have guns, MOVE TO RUSSIA!! Oh, I’m sorry. You are ALREADY living in the Peoples Republic of Madison

If you are afraid someone may be carring a concealed gun move to Wisconson or Illinois, every other state has “some form of concealed carry law”. Concealed means concealed, in states where concealed carry is legal you don’t know who is armed, neither do criminals. Gun owners are not all illogical, crazy, drunks. We are Americans who love freedom and the rights the constitution gaurantee’s

This is probably the worst idea I have ever heard. The last thing I want is to be in a lecture and have someone’s Smith and Wesson fall out of their back pack.

You kids can’t even figure out how to cross the street without turning it into a complete fiasco, and now you want to carry guns? Yeah, great idea.

Quote”Claiming that criminals target gun-free areas is a clear scare tactic on the part of crazed gun toting second amendment proselytizers who will try anything to get people to accept their ulteriorly motivated agenda” End Quote

Really? Virginia Tech, Omaha mall, U of Illionois, Appalachian School of Law, I can keep going on and on…..ALL of them Gun Free Zones. Criminals don’t obey the law….a stupid sign is not going to stop anyone.Sure this could happen anywhere, but the events with high body counts happen where there is a high density of people compared to law enforcement. It’s not a coincidence. Let qualified individuals be armed. There are no promises that something like this can be stopped. All that is being asked is that we be given the chance to make a difference. Stopping a madman in progress is better than dialing 911 and waiting 3-15 minutes. That would be the longest few minutes of your endangered life.

Concealed carry on campus ain’t gonna happen any time soon so why don’t you people put your time to more constructive use like joining Safewalk?

Anonymous either misunderstands the research or is intentionally misleading, although perhaps technically correct. While it is impossible (for technical, experimental design reasons)to state unequivocally, that concealed Carry(CCW)laws reduce crime, it is a demonstrable fact that violent crime exists almost everywhere in inverse proportion to these laws, and that it has gone down after they were passed, wherever that was done. That means that MANY states, comprising a very diverse group of citizens (all but 2 states and Washington DC now allow concealed carry), have experienced this effect. The impossibility of attributing this change to CCW laws alone, is the result of a technicality, i.e., the possibility that some other, unknown factor, which no one has ever been able to identify, MIGHT be involved, and at least partially responsible. In fact, every state that has passed a CCW law in the past two decades, has experienced a statistically significant drop in violent crime during the next year or two, and the rate continues to drop for several years, although at a slower rate of change after the first 12-18 months. Since this has occurred in EVERY state for which we have data, that has passed such laws, it is actually quite likely that these laws caused the drop, it is just not provable beyond any possible doubt (at least not to honest researchers like Lott, Kleck, Mustard, et. al.). Secondly, in those places in both the USA and other countries, where laws reducing the availability of legal guns from a previously higher level were passed, there has been a marked increase in violent (not necessarily gun) crime, following implementation of these laws. These data also argue for the violence-reduction effect of the availability of guns to law-abiding citizens. Several organizations that are typically unfriendly to the concept of gun rights, such as the CDC and American Academy of Sciences, have found that there was no noticeable effect on either gun crime or violent crime following implementation of stricter gun control laws, such as the old “Assault Weapon Ban.” Apparently they had no effect on crime, either way. This is actually pretty much a “no brainer” since the only people who obeyed these laws were the law-abiding gun owners, who weren’t committing the crimes in the first place. The issue of gun suicides is also a bit tricky. While it is true that there are less gun-suicides where it is harder to get guns, there is no reduction in the actual rate of suicide. People merely use another method. In fact, guns have never been the predominant method of choice for suicide. Recent data (the past 25 years or so) have found a clear correlation between so-called “Gun Free Zones” and “mass” (ie, multiple) public shootings. All of the latter have occurred in, and only in, the former. While this is only a correlation, it is certainly suggestive that the same relationship would hold for any college campus, and in fact, there have been no shooting incidents at any of the several colleges that do not ban carrying by CCW licensees on campus. The data are also quite clear on the absence of any “Wild West” effect following the passage of CCW laws, perhaps because the people who obtain concealed carry licenses are, as a group, more law-abiding than the average citizen, in fact they are even more law-abiding than police as a group. The rate of revocation of licenses is miniscule, and even lower for revocation for “gun-related” behavior (which includes arrests for things like DWI or inadvertant trespassing, when there was a gun locked in the trunk - hardly what we usually mean by “Gun-related” crimes). As for the concerns about innocent bystanders being shot, it is statistically far more likely, by an order of magnitude, that they will be shot by a policeman than a CCW licensee. Given all this data, the likelihood is high, that allowing concealed carry on campus, especially by CCW license holders, may have a positive effect, but certainly will not have any negative effect, except perhaps to the egos of those college administrators too ignorant or arrogant to read the research and use their heads (something for which they are supposed to be role models for the rest of us).

Isn’t it funny? The university and state claims that thier rights are MORE important than thier citizen’s and student’s rights! Businesses, University, and Governments have no rights, just responsibilities. Only PEOPLE HAVE RIGHJTS. Especially when it limits my rights, that’s what the US Constitution is for, a direct LIMITATION on governments not citizens. Therefore I will always carry despite objections and unconstitutional laws. Another thing, remember, what governments can give, they can take away. Wisconsin and the US federal governments do not “allow” me to carry a gun. God gave me the right to carry a gun at anytime from the moment I was born a citizen. Read the 2nd Amendment. Neither Wisconsin, the Federal government, or any University can abrogate my natural right to carry a gun and defend myself from criminals. Anyone who disagrees can go unarmed just like all slaves do.

I will never bow a knee to anyone. I served in the US Army defending this country’s Constitution and the citizen’s freedom. I will never give freedom up or fail to defend it from anyone or entity!

I took an oath to defend the US Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. I follow my oaths.

Signed, Texas Free Man

Not a good idea. Even if you conduct a background check there is no way to know that someone with a gun in their backpack wouldn’t freak out and shoot someone. I doubt allowing people at Virginia Tech to have concealed weapons would have prevented anything from happening……

Remember, if everyone gets to conceal carry, then the ISO gets to pack heat as well. But I guess if the gun nuts are OK with rabid communists running around with firearms, I’ll support CC as well.

What Mr. ten dollar word fails to realize is that the great majority of CCW holders don’t carry because they are afraid. We, yes we, are more about being prepaired. Not being prepaired is what happened when people believed the Titanic was unsinkable.

Washington DC, having the most restrictive gun control laws in the United States, has the highest murder and violent crime rates per capita in the Nation. Pennsylvania, having the highest rate of concealed carry permit holders per capita in the Nation, has the lowest murder and violent crime rate.

The correlation is clear: When citizens are armed (or potentially armed), criminals and crime are deterred.

In his book, More Guns, Less Crime, John Lott’s analysis of crime report data showed statistically significant effects of concealed carry laws. One major conclusion was that locations with more permissive concealed carry laws had decreased violent crime but increased property crime. The possible reasons for this rise in property crime are twofold:

Property crimes include trespassing, and concealed-carry statutes that include prohibited-area laws introduce the possibility of trespass where the individual would otherwise be in violation of a weapons law by carrying concealed (e.g. unlawful carry) or would not carry and be lawful.

Concealed carry allows potential victims of violent crime to prevent such crime; as a result, the assailant, if not fatally shot, is instead charged with a property crime such as burglary instead of homicide. In both cases, crime is reduced overall, and criminal activity that does occur is recategorized as to type and severity because of the effects of the change in law.

Research comparing various countries’ violent crime rates, murder rates, and crimes committed with weapons, have found that legal ownership of guns, including concealed carry guns, generally reduces crime rates.[25][22] [22] Tennessee Law Review, “Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda?”, 1994. [25] Gary A. Mauser, Simon Fraser University, Don B. Kates, retired; Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1564/

Set aside your unfounded and baseless fears and educate yourselves on this topic. Be prepared to defend your position with facts and data, rather than childish fear-based rants. Be trained and prepared to defend your person and your loved ones with self defense training and tools, including legal concealed carry firearms. It is the right of every American.

Invictus Maneo

What your major media outlets have not reported is that ALL the major massacres happened at a GUN FREE ZONE!!!!

Wake up and relize you should not fear law abiding citizens. You shoud fear those that demand you have NO GUNS for your own personal defense!

I dont understand why students have to “ASK” for what is a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT. You do NOT ask for a right. YOU TAKE IT! When I was an undergrad and of legal age to buy a handgun, I bought one and always carried it on campus. The fact that University regs. forbid it was IRRELEVANT. My attitude was, and still is: THE 2ed AMENDMENT ALWAYS TRUMPS UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS. SO FU*K THE REGULATIONS!

With the increasing crime in Madison, Milwaukee and around the state in general, it makes sense that people take greater control of their own personal security. Concealed carry would be one part of the answer. Ignoring the stats that show reduced crime in states that have CC won’t change reality. They are safer. Conversely, locations with gun bans in place are the most dangerous places to be, without question. CC license holders are among the most law abiding people in the country. They tend not to jeopardize their license by carrying while intoxicated. Recommending folks move to Texas so they can carry is as ridiculous as telling them to move to Canada because they don’t like the President. Come to the range sometime and I’ll teach you how to safely handle a firearm. Maybe you’ll even join the club or sign up for a target league! I did.

Wisconsin is only one of two states that does not allow their citizens to defend themselves. Thanks to Governor Doyle vetoing the Personal Protection Act twice.

An 18 year old can be trusted to vote and defend his/her country with a firearm, but can’t carry one for personal protection on a campus? Something wrong with that picture!

Anon:

Passage of this will not increase the number of guns in society. It will merely add to the number of physical settings in which screened and tested law abiding citizens can keep and bare a significant disinsentive to criminal attack.

On the heals of recent school shootings there is a growing cry to allow teachers and students to carry firearms for personal security. Students and teachers who live in daily fear that those tragedies will repeat themselves and do not trust that the establishment can or will protect them. Lessons learned from past tragedies convince them that school administrations and law enforcement don’t get involved until after the blood is spilled. The other side claims that more guns on campus will create more problems than it solves and proclaims that the solution is to have better campus security. Security that involves surveillance cameras, metal detectors, improved communications, zero tolerance laws, landscape sterilization and on site armed security guards. Those plans may have good intentions and appease the emotions of the public. but they lack one essential ingredient, money. School budgets can barely afford textbooks and pencils. Law enforcement budgets are already spread too thin. Where would the money to pay for all the high priced technology and necessary manpower come from? Raise taxes and tuitions in these troubled economic times and there will be a cry heard four states away. Finding money to fund all the dreamed of security improvements “ain’t gonna happen”. After the horror and pain of a tragedy wanes the plans to make schools and campuses safer will themselves drift into oblivion, all for one reason, money. It’s time to get real and separate fact from fiction. Students and teachers fearful for their own safety will be left to their own defenses. Perhaps it’s time to realize they can be trusted. We can’t protect them with plans that are not affordable or with good intentions, but we must allow them some way to protect them from becoming sitting ducks in a shooting gallery because some crazed individual is bent on doing carnage. Even if the carry of a firearm only presents a psychological relief it is still worthwhile. The reduction of stress and the feeling of safety is essential to a good education.

Coming from Massachusetts we are used to high violent crimes. We have a License to carry firearms system thats needs to be fixed, If you live in the right town the licensing officer will issue you a Non-restricted license to carry, you really don’t many restriction where you can carry other than Federal Buildings and schools. Now where I live is right on the Mass/New Hampshire line where one out of two homes in NH have some sort of firearms in them, Seven out ten people carry in new Hampshire, NH has one of the lowest if not the lowest crime rate in our nation. The only place that has restrictions are no court room carry of a firearm. Does anyone see something wrong with how NH laws work? Should every state run like NH when it comes to your rights? NH is another state that will not allow Illegals to reside in their state. Illegals are prime source of crime in Mass other than Ted Kennedy.

Too many words as I would expect from a student based readership. KISS. 1. “Gun Free Zone” = “Free Fire Zone For Crazed Criminals”
2. “More Guns” = “Less Crime” 3. When criminal attacks are seconds away, the police are only minutes away.

The opponents of CCW keep “guessing” what will happen if concealed carry is passed. STOP GUESSING! Just look at the universities that already have concealed carry laws in place; those places are the best predictors of what would happen here” University of Colorado and all nine public universities in Utah allow concealed carry on their campuses. Since CCW was allowed on the campuses, there has not been a single shooting, a single gun accident or a single gun theft.

People need to realize that “guns do not kill people, people kill people” I know this is a quote that has been overly used but; its accurate. CCW permit holders have been background checked, and do not have a criminal or violent past. These people have choose to follow the letter and spirt of the law. Those looking to do harm, have not bothered to register with the local police department or taken classes on how to properly carry a firearm, they have learned what they know in the streets.

People must realize that criminals do not obey laws; schools, public buildings, universities are in danger, because they know their those licensed to carry are not permitted under law to carry in those places; therefore it would be reasonable to assume if they have gone thru the trouble of legalizing their gun carry, they would follow all the laws that are dictated in that policy.

Let those qualified people “CCW carriers” be patriots for justice; I agree with the auote in this blog that says: “When seconds count, police are only minutes away”.

I have a high respect for authority, and police are great aribitors of justice, but not always available when you need them.

All these anti gun comments, what is wrong with these people. I think it must be how people are raised. The anti freedom, anti constitutional rights, anti right to carry, (keep and BEAR arms) must have been raised to be afraid of guns and believe that the government is supposed to hold them and rule them cradle to grave. I own a pistol, and im not a criminal, im not violent. So wtf, whats the problem. Wisconsin’s baring people the right to carry is unconstitutional and needs to be repealed. Even if the majority of people in Wisconsin do not believe people should carry it is irrelevant, the constitution was created to protect the individual not the mob. Cherish your rights, fight for your rights, and most of all exercise your rights. -freedom lover in Texas

“Yet we can’t trust a college student that has had training and a background check to carry a concealed firearm for personal protection?”

Says the person who would panic and blow away a dozen innocent people while completely missing any bad guys.

The best thing WI college students can do right now is obtain a handgun, train with it, and openly carry it off campus Wisconsin - unfortunately, WI law, though allowing open carry on foot generally throughout the state, bans even this on college campuses. Awareness of open carry rights in WI will help push concealed carry reforms in WI. See more at OpenCarry.org

“Since CCW was allowed on the campuses, there has not been a single shooting, a single gun accident or a single gun theft.”

And if you were a student there carrying your own concealed weapon, none of that would be true.

And to those that think “everyone” will sign up and carry a gun, it is just not true. I recommend that you take a Conceal Carry Certification Course to fully understand what it is all about. It really helps you learn about yourself, and it increases your care and responsibility for humanity, and many (after the training) have decided against carrying. They aren’t willing to open themselves up to all the responsibility, liability and the potential that they may (one day) need to take a life to save themselves or others. With great power comes great responsibility! My experience is that people with the Conceal Carry permits are EXTREMELY responsible and law abiding individuals. The state and the U.W. would truely be a safer place when more good guys (sheepdogs) are able to stop the bad guys.
http://www.ppa-wi.com/essay02.html

I blogged about this Students for Concealed Weapons Conceal Their Better Judgment… “The Walker, Texas Ranger wannabes will also tell you that states that have legalized concealed weapons have lower crime rates. To that I reference my peer who thought his lighter was best used last week to set off his dorm’s sprinklers, which caused damage on every floor between his and the ground eighty feet below. I don’t want kids who can rationalize indoor Noah’s Arc reenactments to possess the legal authority to carry anything more dangerous than pocket lint and their room keys.”

Lets All sing the Nazi song…. It’s the Nazi song….. Because your forced to sing along…….

Lt. Holen has some things wrong. First; what even gives him the authority to talk about protection. Usually the cops don’t even show up until the blood is shed. Second; He talks about not being isolated. Were the students in the auditorium of NIU isolated? Third; Personal physical self defense is worthless if the gunman is more than eight feet away. Fourth; How could the students at Virginia Tech and NIU “avoid” the conflict? Not go to school?

The cops just don’t get it do they? They are so paranoid about other people having guns they can’t even discuss the subject rationally.

Conceal and carry is a good idea. I think it would create more income and jobs for the state (fees from permits, jobs for trainers, etc)

For those of you want to legally be ready for a situation. Simply place your gun in your trunk (legally) in the case. And keep a loaded magazine in your pocket (which is legal).

I have to laugh at the anti gunners who say pro gunners use scare tactics when they use hypothetical situations of wild west shootouts. Bostwick needs to take a different approach. He should ask (although it would only be symbolic) that the families of victims of gun violence file a civil suit against the UW System, Gov Doyle and all who voted against carry-conceal, on the basis of aiding a felon and assessory to murder. Because realistically, by telling persons they can not defend thenselves, they are in essence helping the criminals. Without carry-conceal, every person would need a personal police officer, can you inmagine what our taxes would be then.

And take away Doyle’s security/body guard. Why should he be able to have protection, but we cannot?

I know this is posted way after the last comment but…

http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

That site is unbiased research from FEDERAL Information and Studies, anyone who wants to post should read that first.